Mike Huckabee in CNBC 2015 GOP primary debate

On Corporations:
Wall Street executives should have gone to jail in 2008

Q: You have railed against income inequality. You've said that some Wall Street executives should have gone to jail over the roles that they played during the financial crisis. Are there specific steps you would require from corporate America to try and
reduce the income inequality.

HUCKABEE: Look, corporations ought to exercise some responsibility. When CEO income has risen 90% above the average worker, when the bottom 90% of this country's economy has had stagnant wages for the past
40 years, somebody is taking it in the teeth. And it's not the folks on Wall Street. I'm not anti-Wall Street, but I don't believe the government ought to wear a team jersey, pick winners and losers.
The government ought to wear a striped shirt and just make sure the game is played fairly.

On Health Care:
Declare war to cure the four biggest chronic diseases

Why don't we say, "Let's cure the four big cost-driving diseases: diabetes, heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer's"? If you do that, you don't just change the economy, you transform the lives of millions of hurting Americans..

85 percent of the cost of
Medicare is chronic disease. The fact is if we don't address what's costing so much, we can't throw enough money at this. We need to declare war on the four big cost drivers because 80% of all medical costs in this country are chronic disease.
We don't have a healthcare crisis in America, we have a health crisis.

When I was a little kid, we eradicated polio. You know how much money we spent on polio last year in America? We didn't spend any. We've saved billions of dollars.

You want to fix
Medicare? Focus on the diseases that are costing us the trillions of dollars. Alzheimers, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Eradicate those and you fix Medicare and you've fixed America's economy, and you've made people's lives a heck of a lot better.

On Principles & Values:
I have consistently fought the Clinton machine in Arkansas

Donald Trump would be a president every day of the week and twice on Sunday, rather than Hillary. I've spent a lifetime in politics fighting the Clinton machine. You want to talk about what we're going to be up against next year?
I am the only guy that has consistently fought the Clinton machine every election I was ever in over the past 26 years. And not only did I fight them, but I beat them.

On Principles & Values:
Candidates don't run for themselves; they run for the future

I guarantee you to every person on this stage there's something deep inside of us that would cause us to give up our livelihoods and fight for America. I've got five grandkids.
I do not want to walk my five grandkids through the charred remains of a once great country called America, and say, "Here you go, $20 trillion dollars of debt. Good luck making something out of this mess."

On Social Security:
Don't use Social Security Trust Fund to borrow more money

Q [to Gov. Christie]: You said that we need to raise the retirement age for Social Security; and that we need to cut benefits for people who make over $80,000. Gov. Huckabee said that your policies would rob seniors of the benefits that they've earned.

HUCKABEE: Yes, we've lied to the American people. But you know what we're not telling them?
It's their money. This is not entitlement; it's not welfare. This is money that people have confiscated out of their paychecks. Today Congress decided to take another $150 billion away from Social Security so they can borrow more money. they're always
going to say, "well, we're going to fix this one day." No, they're not. This is a matter not of math; this is a matter of morality. If this country does not keep its promise to seniors, then what promise can this country hope to be trusted to keep?

On Social Security:
Means-testing lets government decide what you deserve

Let's keep in mind that for one-third of the 60 million Americans on Social Security represents 90% of their income. When I hear people talking about means testing, let's just remember what that means. If we means-test Social Security,
it means that the government decides whether or not I deserve it. If a person lives in a seven-room house, does the government get to say you don't need seven rooms, we're going to take two of them away?

Folks, the government has no business stealing even more from the people who have paid this in. I just want to remind you: People paid their money; they expect to have it. And if this government doesn't pay it, then tell me what's different
between the government and Bernie Madoff, who sits in prison today, for doing less than what the government has done to the people on Social Security and Medicare in this country.